A federal agency has given money
to preserve old books and papers in Ohio and to

share the vision of a Columbus folk artist.

The Ohio Historical Society and
the State Library of Ohio, and the Columbus Museum of Art have received grants
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The art museum received $30,000
from the endowment, said Jim Weidman, associate director of the museum. That
grant is part of a $4.77 million federal program to support 34 museum exhibits
around the country.

The Columbus grant will help fund
the exhibit Elijah Pierce, Woodcarver, currently on display here. The exhibit
will travel to New York City, Dallas, Philadelphia and Santa Fe, N.M.

''The NEH is very interested in
the educational aspect of the exhibition,'' Weidman said. ''We do have a lot of
didactic material on the walls, that talks about the artist and interprets the
various aspects of the work.''

The grant money also was used to
print a color brochure for visitors, he said.

''People are being given a lot
more information about the work'' than they would otherwise get, Weidman said.
''Without the grant, it probably would not have been possible for us to do the
things we have done.''

The endowment grant is the
museum's first in at least eight years, Weidman said, and another grant is
pending. The museum has worked hard to obtain national endowment money, Weidman
said. ''The application probably runs to 150 pages. There is an incredible
amount of time represented there.''

The $49,279 granted to the
historical society and library is part of a $7.3 million endowment program to
preserve documents in 22 states.

The grant will be used to develop
a statewide plan to preserve historical books, manuscripts and photographs, said
Maggie Sanese, communications manager at the

historical society.

''It is a big problem in the
library world,'' Sanese said. ''What do we do with the tons of documents we
have?''

Putting together the preservation
plan will take about two years, Sanese said. Five public hearings will be
conducted around the state while the plan is assembled, she said.

Caption:
Tom Dodge/ Dispatch

Fifth Avenue Elementary School
students visit the Elijah Pierce exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art.